Israel Matzav

Israel stepping up protection for gas drilling platforms

Missile boats have stepped up missions around the Tamar and Leviathan platforms over the past year, as well as coordination with private security firms contracted by the US-Israeli exploration consortium, the official said.

"We have replicated the arrangements already in place at Yam Tethys," the official said, referring to another Israeli gas field 40 km (25 miles) off southern Ashkelon port, near the waters of Gaza.

Tamar and Leviathan, in which Israel sees a potential pipeline to energy independence, are around twice and three times as far out to sea, respectively. That challenges Israel's small navy, which is more accustomed to close coastal patrols.

The Israeli military's newspaper Bamahane said the navy was undergoing expansion including the appointment of a commodore to handle the induction of two more German-made submarines and address "the new need to protect the drilling rigs".

Bamahane did not elaborate, but experts have long voiced concern that Tamar and Leviathan could be targeted by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas given Beirut's complaints at what it deems Israel's unilateral exploration in the absence of an agreed maritime border. The two countries are technically at war.

"One danger is a proximity attack, by frogmen, by boats, by terrorists in some fashion," Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser, told the Globes business journal in May.

"Another, bigger challenge is how to face the threat of missiles, because today you can launch missiles from tens of kilometres away," he said.

Israel and Cyprus, which is doing its own drilling for eastern Mediterranean gas in consortium with Texas-based Noble Energy, are also mindful of Turkey's naval assertiveness in the area.

Labels: Cyprus, Hezbullah, Leviathon well, oil and gas exploration, Tamar natural gas well, Turkish obsession with Israel, Turkish occupation of Cyprus

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:13 AM